Be careful Saturday , don’t hang yourself...

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A 70 year old Oregon hunter is in critical condition after falling from his tree stand and getting tangled in his harness over 20 feet in the air, hanging upside down for two days. Luckily another hunter found him. Apparently when they attempted to rescue him and the blood flow returned to his lower body, he suffered a cardiac event. Not sure of his current status.

Oregon hunter in critical condition after hanging upside down
from tree stand for two days
By Michelle Gant
Published August 31, 2018
FoxNews.com

An Oregon hunter is in critical condition after falling from his tree stand and getting tangled in his harness over 20 feet in the air,
hanging upside down for two days.
The man identified as Eddie Voelker, 70, suffered critical injuries and is in a medically induced coma after being airlifted from the
area near Umatilla National Forest to a hospital in Richland, Wash., KTVZ reported.

The Union County Sheriff’s Office said in a press release Voelker was found by another hunter around 11:15 a.m. Tuesday north of
Highway 244, northwest of the Frazier/Four Corners area in eastern Oregon. Upon discovering Voelker, the witness had to drive to
the highway in order to get cell service so he could call for help.
The 70-year-old hunter was ultimately put into a medically induced coma, according to local reports. (Umatilla County Sheriff's
Office)

Sheriff's deputies from Union County and nearby Umatilla County, along with U.S. Forest Service and medics from La Grande and
Pendleton, were dispatched to locate Voelker.
While crew members were getting him down with a bucket truck, Voelker lost consciousness and his heart stopped beating because
blood flow that had been cut off to his lower body was suddenly restored, according to KTVZ.

He was then taken by ambulance to a makeshift landing zone where he was then transported to the Life Flight helicopter that took
him to Kadlec Regional Medical Center, according to the press release.
A Voelker’s family friend, Jeanette Jacoby, told the East Oregonian he was put in a drug-induced coma Wednesday after doctors
performed a procedure to relieve pressure on his brain. While Voelker was breathing on his own for a while, he had to be placed
back on a ventilator Thursday.

Jacoby said Voelker had been alone on the hunting trip, aside from his dogs. His family has since retrieved them along with some of
his gear. She also said the family is thankful to the rescuers and everyone who helped Voelker.

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The Latest: Hunter hanging from tree 2 days was “hollering”
8/31/18 2:56 PM
LA GRANDE, Ore. — The Latest on an Oregon hunter who was rescued after hanging for two days from a tree 30 feet (9 meters) off the ground (all times local):

11:45 a.m.

An Oregon hunter who hung upside-down in a tree for 2 days about 30 feet (9 meters) from the ground was “hollering” for help when two hunters found him.

The La Grande Observer reports that father-and-son hunters Steven and Joseph Royston heard 70-year-old Eddie Voelker yelling from a mile (1.6 kilometers) away and spent 1 ½ hours searching for him because they were not looking up.

The East Oregonian reports Voelker is in a drug-induced coma and is in critical condition with brain swelling.

Voelker fell from his tree stand and became tangled in his safety harness while hunting rural northeast Oregon earlier this week.

His heart briefly stopped beating during the rescue because he had been upside-down for so long.

10:10 a.m.

A 70-year-old Oregon hunter who was rescued after hanging upside-down for two days about 30 feet (9 meters) from the ground is in intensive care in a drug-induced coma.

The East Oregonian reports Friday that Eddie Voelker, of Prineville, was on a ventilator and has had a procedure to relieve pressure on his brain.

Another hunter found Voelker suspended from the tree earlier this week.

Voelker had fallen from his tree stand and become entangled in his safety harness.

Crews used a bucket truck to reach him and his heart stopped during the rescue.

The newspaper reports that Voelker was flown to a hospital in Richland, Washington, where he remains in critical condition.

His family returned to the site to bring him his hunting dogs, which had remained with him.

LA GRANDE (AP) — A 70-year-old Oregon hunter who was rescued after hanging upside-down for two days about 30 feet above ground was “hollering out” for help, but a father-and-son hunting duo who heard him spent an hour and a half searching for him because they weren’t looking up, a newspaper reported Friday.

Eddie Voelker, of Prineville, Oregon, was hunting earlier this week in the remote, northeastern part of the state when he slipped off his tree stand and became entangled in his safety harness while hanging upside-down. Voelker remained conscious but could not free himself, The Observer reported.

Two days later, Steven and Joseph Royston of Stayton were hunting a short distance away and they heard Voelker yelling for help.

He is now in critical condition at a hospital in Richland, Washington, where he is in a drug-induced coma, according to family friend Jeanette Jacoby.

“We didn’t stumble on him — he was hollering out,” Steven Royston told the newspaper. “We were hunting about a mile or so from his location and I heard someone yelling. I knew we needed to do something.”

Since Voelker’s yelling was echoing in the forest, Royston and his son drove around in their vehicle so they could cover more ground.

“My son honked the horn, and we knew we were getting closer to him (because) once he heard the horn he started yelling louder. He kept it up so we could find him,” he said.

The hunters at first had trouble because they were looking at ground level, he said.

“He said, ‘I’m up in the tree,’” Royston recalled. “Holy smokes. He was about 30 feet above and tangled in the ropes from his tree stand. His head was straight down, (and he had) no way to get himself down. We knew we needed to get him help right then.”

The Roystons drove about 8 miles to get cellphone reception and called 911.

On the way, they flagged down another car and told that person to go sit with Voelker.

They waited by the road and were able to lead a rescue helicopter to Voelker, but the helicopter crew didn’t have the right equipment to get him down, Royston said.

About 30 people from all different local agencies arrived, but no one had equipment that was tall enough to reach him.

Then, a paramedic with the La Grande Fire Department remembered seeing the local electric utility training with their bucket trucks to rescue linemen who are injured on the job. The rescuers called Oregon Trail Electric Co-Op and made the unusual request for help.

“I wasn’t certain they were going to play ball,” Capt. Robert Tibbetts said. “Not because they aren’t helpful, but because it was such an unusual request. It was rolling the dice.”

Tibbetts said that being upside down for an extended length of time can lead to poor circulation and a multitude of issues — potentially life-threatening — for the body once it’s upright. It was actually better that Voelker hadn’t been able to right himself when no paramedics were around, he said, because it could have been much worse.

“We knew the likelihood of cardiac arrest is extraordinarily high. We knew we couldn’t barge in and put him in the (bucket) truck without doing treatment first,” Tibbetts said. “We were forced to slow it down a bit and deal with the medical side of it while developing a plan for the actual rescue.”

The U.S. Forest Service set up a rope system to slowly lower Voelker into the bucket, and as they started to do that — and as he became more upright — his medical condition deteriorated rapidly. Voelker’s heart stopped briefly, but rescuers got a pulse back before he was loaded onto a helicopter.